Congress Likely To Face More Turmoil

December 22, 1985|By Steven V. Roberts, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The congressional session that limped to a close Friday was one of the least productive and most frustrating in recent memory, many members of Congress from both parties say. They complain that Congress repeatedly missed deadlines and mired down in deadlock until it was forced to the point of crisis.

Moreover, several lawmakers say the first session of the 99th Congress provided a preview of the pain and turmoil that is likely to prevail next year when congressmen will have to carry out a new budget-balancing law in an election year.

For many, the final week of late-night sessions and last-minute solutions seemed to symbolize the entire year. When Congress headed home over the weekend, it was 10 weeks after its original goal for adjournment. Even so, the lawmakers left largely for future years` consideration the single biggest problem they faced all year, a gaping budget deficit that is pushing past $200 billion for the current fiscal year.

The failure was highlighted in the final hours of the session Friday night as lawmakers left the capital after giving up on efforts to reduce deficits $74 billion over three years.

``We haven`t done much, and what we have done, we`ve done under the pressure of final deadlines that came up after we had missed all the others,`` said Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., the Senate minority leader. ``From the standpoint of productive, progressive legislation, this session has been, I think, the worst I have seen since I`ve been here.``

The prospect of making highly unpopular decisions on budget matters just before hitting the campaign trail next year sends a shudder of dread through Capitol Hill.

``Difficult as it was, this session is going to look very easy compared to next year,`` said Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. ``Anytime you still produce a budget deficit of $200 billion, Congress has not been making the decisions it takes to do the job.``

Legislators generally agree that the reasons for this record include archaic congressional procedures, particularly in the Senate; sharp divisions over unappetizing choices; and the widespread impulse to make decisions in terms of their impact on politics rather than policy. Above all, Republicans and Democrats alike blame President Reagan as failing both to set a clear legislative agenda and to admit that closing the budget deficit would require new taxes and steep cuts in military spending.

Congressional leaders from each party searched for silver linings as they defended and explained their record. Thomas P. O`Neill Jr., the speaker of the house, said House Democrats had had an ``excellent year,`` but he defined their success mainly on how they had checked or altered the initiatives of Senate Republicans and Reagan.

O`Neill recalled that while Reagan won re-election by almost 6 million votes last year, Democratic candidates for the House piled up a similar margin and controlled the chamber by 71 seats.

Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., who succeeded Howard H. Baker Jr. as majority leader this year, issued a six-page account of his own achievements and listed deficit reduction as his ``top priority.`` But he also conceded that the budget adopted by Congress ``falls far short in both dollars and substance`` of what is needed to deal decisively with the deficit.

Dole also took pride in forging compromises that staved off potentially embarrassing setbacks for Reagan on such issues as the giant MX intercontinental missile, aid to rebel forces in Nicaragua, and economic sanctions against the racial policies of South Africa.

But most lawmakers gave gloomy assessments of the session, and some blamed the rules of the Senate, which allow unlimited debate, and thus unlimited opportunity for delay.

The unwritten rules of Capitol Hill, which depend on mutual civility and respect, have also taken a beating. Early in the year, the House engaged in a partisan battle over a disputed election in Indiana, and as Rep. Tony Coelho, D-Calif., put it: ``There is no longer the legislative congeniality you generally have.``

Others suggested that the tedious pace and tendentious disputes were caused by the harsh realities facing Congress. ``Maybe it`s human nature,`` said Rep. Guy Vander Jagt, R-Mich. ``The fact that decisions are getting tougher and tougher explains our inclination to put off more and more. We`re not giving out goodies; we`re making cutbacks.``

When Reagan came into office, he advanced an economic program with three major goals: cut taxes, increase military spending and balance the budget. In the course of the year, most lawmakers voiced the conclusion that these aims could not be reconciled, given the political necessity of retaining a social ``safety net,`` and that hewing to the first two goals would only lead to ever-expanding deficits.

``Somehow, at some point,`` said Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, D-La., ``we all began to see that the emperor wore no clothes.``